Loading Photos from the Camera to an Android Device

 

An old dream of any younger enthusiasts is to connect the image quality and versatility of a real camera with the connectivity of a smartphone. There are apps, but they are always a half-baken solution only, slow and not easy to handle, often requiring to set up a WLAN network from the camera. The reason for this is that neither the implementations of Bluetooth nor NFC seem to be fast enough for pictures. Bluetooth should be good to go, taking some toll on the battery, of course.

We should start by recognizing that the smartphones of today have quite impressive cameras with several lenses, including macro capabilities. Moreover, smartphones can produce special stuff like HDR or panoramas in camera easily, and immediately share the results. Of course, they make heavy use of noise reductions and sharpening, nowadays often by AI. The results are pleasant pictures which look great on the display or when shared in the net. Videos are also no problem. It is no surprise that smartphone photography has become so popular. Cameras are now almost a niche product.

But we are hobbyists and want to have a camera with the best image quality we can afford. We also want special lenses for special tools which are not available on the smartphone. And there is the problem of handling too. I cannot think of using a smartphone only.

On the other hand, it can be desirable to be able to upload an image from the camera instantly. For this, there are several options. I am describing them from my own perspective and based on my own experiments. I have a Nikon Z5 and a Pixel 7a.

• You can use the Nikon Snapbridge app in two ways, by Bluetooth or by WLAN. 
• Bluetooth allows to download small previews of images, send time and GPS locations, and to remotely release the shutter. You need to allow the connection and pairing on the camera in the menu. Once you get this working (which is not as easy as it should be), I suggest to select images for the download. Unfortunately, image take some time to appear on the device.
• WLAN will be set up, disconnecting your device from the net and connecting to the smartphone. You are now able to download full images and see the preview for the remote control. 
• You can buy a simple SD card reader with an USB-C connector. When you plug it into your device, an information should pop up that you can access the SD card. Use it to share the images on the card with Google Photos or with Lightroom if you have that.
• You can connect the device with the camera by an USB-C cable. On my device, an app appears after while called "Camera Import". You can use it to import images. These images should appear in Google Photos after a while in a folder called Z5. The process is slow and unreliable with little feedback. My device asked me if it should open Google Photos next time a camera is connected. But that did not work.

None of these options is really convincing because the implementation is lacking feed-back and automatisms. I found the SD card to be the most reliable one. I used the same card reader on an iPad to import RAW files to Lightroom, and it worked a lot better because Lightroom recognized the card for import.

There once was a Samsung smartphone with a bigger compact camera built-in. It was no commercial success. And was probably the wrong answer to the problem to start with. Binding two devices has always the disadvantage that neither can be modernized without trashing the other. Let us see if camera manufacturers are able to learn and to even see the problem.

The two images on this page were transferred, one via the SD card reader, and the other via an USB-C cable, then edited in Lightroom on the Pixel 7a. I found it difficult to edit on that small device anyway, so I would rarely use these methods. The iPad is a better tool, but still not perfect.